


secret

by porcelainsimplicity



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-15
Updated: 2012-02-15
Packaged: 2017-10-31 05:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/340653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelainsimplicity/pseuds/porcelainsimplicity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>do i need to disclaimer these things?  i mean, we're talking about characters from a film here.  clearly they don't belong to me.  my mind's only borrowed and played with them for awhile.</p>
    </blockquote>





	secret

**Author's Note:**

> do i need to disclaimer these things? i mean, we're talking about characters from a film here. clearly they don't belong to me. my mind's only borrowed and played with them for awhile.

Charles's ability makes Erik's mind an open book, one that he can read at any moment, but this is one chapter that Erik desperately wants to keep hidden. He's not ashamed of the way he feels about Charles, but he's not ready for Charles to know about it either. And that's the worst part of falling for a telepath – he'll always know about it.

The sky is just beginning to lighten when Erik slips from the bed and begins to dress. They've been doing this enough for him to know just how long he has before Charles stirs in the morning light, just how long he has to slip down the hall to his room before Hank stumbles out of his mini-laboratory towards the kitchen for coffee. Once his clothes are back on and his shoes are tied, he sits down on the edge of the bed and takes in the man still sleeping there.

Charles is beautiful. He's never used that word to describe anything before, his memories of what had been beautiful in his youth destroyed by Nazis and death. But Charles is beautiful in a way that he imagines he's never noticed before, like when the sunlight hits him at just the right angle, or when he gets that small smile on his face when one of the others makes some progress in their training. Part of him cannot believe that he's been lucky enough to touch something so beautiful, not when his life has been filled with nothing but ugliness for longer than he can remember.

And here in the soft, early morning glow, Charles is at his most beautiful. Peacefulness has taken over his features, the slight worries that he can tell are always on his mind soothed away by the numbness of sleep. It's moments like this when Erik wishes this could last forever, the two of them and whatever this is between them, because for reasons he's been unable to explain, when Charles is at peace, so is he. He can't ever remember being at peace, or remember a time when he thought he'd ever be at peace, not knowing that Schmidt or Shaw or whatever his name really is was still out there.

He's been on this hellbent path of revenge for years, and there's not a part of him that doesn't still want the thrill of finally being able to avenge his mother, but Charles has awakened something else in him, something he didn't realize he was capable of, something he certainly didn't think he'd ever feel. And maybe part of that comes from the fact that he is little more than an open book to Charles, because Charles can read the horrors without him having to relive them, find the pieces that he's forgotten and make him remember them.

He glances over at the clock briefly before standing up, getting in one last good look before making his way to the door and quietly slipping from the room. He makes his way to his own and lets himself in, the door closing mere seconds before he can hear Hank's door opening down the hall. He strips off his clothes and moves to find others to put on, the comforting thought that Charles is going to be by his side a constant companion.

When they see one another at breakfast, and their gaze meets across the table, Erik allows himself a smile at the trick he pulls over Charles every morning just before sunrise.

He never realizes that that moment lets Charles in on the secret.


End file.
